Alabama 3 - M.O.R.

2007-10-10 11:40

Label:

One Little Indian, 2007

Genre:

Blues and Rock

Our Rating:

Reader Rating:

They sound much more like a mixture of almost everything, plus Lambchop’s knack for atmosphere, with lots of fun thrown in and futuristic sound effects that don’t interfere with the steady comfortable march of their Americana melodies.

You’d never guess they formed in Brixton, London. Actually you would because Brixton is where people without money or a London accent - and left winger types like these dudes - hid from the perpetual gloom and wallpaper of British so-called life until rising property prices put an end to that era.
Anyhow, even if this isn’t A3’s best album, it’s still fantastic. Every now and again (like, on a rare day you bunk work and go to the beach) you’ll really need “Monday Don’t Mean Anything to Me”. “Fly” makes a great opening track for a road trip with buddies. “Amos Moses” inspires a longing for Tom Waits’ lighter, drunker days. There’s a rap slot from Nam and Rev B Atwell, where air guitar meets Camel-man fluting on “Are you a Souljah”. The crunchy 10 minute final track “Sweet Joy” is ten minutes long, the first a mere 90 seconds. Amazingly this works perfectly! It’s like two (or maybe five) ordinary-looking people had an oddly beautiful kid. More amazingly, the album hangs together, leaving you smiling because, well, what the hell IS this shit you’re hearing?

Well, six albums later, “cuddly chemical country” is still the closest you’re going to get to giving it a genre slot. And whatever these guys are on, let’s pray we all get to see them live before they stop taking it, and before we all die of something really boring.